ICE, SNOW AND RHINOS: EPIATHERACERIUM ITJILIK

Julius Csotonyi © Julius Csotonyi

Up in the High Arctic, where the wind cuts clean across a stark polar desert and the ground remembers a very different world, and a most unexpected creature has stepped back into the light.

From ancient lakebed sediments at Haughton Crater on Devon Island in Nunavut comes a beautifully preserved whisper from the Early Miocene — a recently described species of rhinoceros, Epiatheracerium itjilik. 

And not just any rhino, but the northernmost one ever found.

Rhinoceroses, those sturdy browsers we tend to associate with sunbaked savannahs, have a far deeper and more adventurous story. Their lineage stretches back more than 40 million years, once roaming across much of the globe — Europe, North America, Asia — a sprawling dynasty of more than 50 species, now reduced to just five.

Marisa Gilbert and Dr. Danielle Fraser

This Arctic cousin lived some 23 million years ago, in a landscape that would feel almost unrecognizable to us today. 

Where there is now permafrost and silence, there were once temperate forests and freshwater lakes — a place of browsing mammals and quiet, green abundance. 

And this rhino? A curious one.

Smaller, lightly built, and notably hornless, Epiatheracerium itjilik would not have carried the imposing silhouette we imagine. Instead, it likely moved with a gentler presence through its forested home, leaving behind a remarkably complete fossil — nearly 75% of its skeleton recovered, including diagnostic bones such as the teeth, mandibles and parts of the cranium in stunning three-dimensional detail.

Its name, itjilik, meaning “frosty” in Inuktitut, is a fitting nod to both its Arctic resting place and the collaboration with Inuit knowledge holders who helped shape its story. Science, at its best, is a shared endeavour — and this discovery carries that spirit forward beautifully.

Dr. Natalia Rybczynski and Dr. Mary Dawson

By placing this species within the rhino family tree, researchers have uncovered new clues about ancient migration routes — suggesting that rhinoceroses once wandered between Europe and North America via Greenland, long after we thought such pathways had closed.

Even more tantalizing, fragments of ancient proteins have been recovered from its tooth enamel, stretching the limits of how far back we can trace molecular echoes of life. 

These are the quiet revolutions — the kind that reshape how we understand the great unfolding of mammals across time.

Lead Image: Epiatheracerium itjilik standing at the edge of a pool of water in a forested lake habitat, Devon Island, by the superbly talented Julius Csotonyi (© Julius Csotonyi). Here he has chosen to show the plants and animals based on fossils found at the site, including the transitional seal Puijila darwini.

Second Image: Marisa Gilbert (left) and Dr. Danielle Fraser with the fossil of Epiaceratherium itjilik laid out in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature. Photo by Pierre Poirier © Canadian Museum of Nature.

Third Image: Dr. Natalia Rybczynski and Dr. Mary Dawson sift fossils at Haughton Crater. Photo by Martin Lipman © Canadian Museum of Nature.